A Troubling Milestone: Most Supreme Court Rulings Are Secretive Votes With Little Justification
ProPublica conducted a new analysis that shows the court is deciding more consequential rulings than ever before in largely unsigned orders with little to no explanation.
“That Guy Is Still Out There”: The Bestselling Author, the Exoneration and the Rape Crisis the Police Ignored
Five years after Anthony Broadwater was belatedly cleared for the sexual assault of Alice Sebold, the questions of how he came to be wrongly convicted and how one or more serial rapists operated for years with little consequence have only deepened.
Florida Is Executing Prisoners at a Record Pace, Even as Most of the U.S. Abandons the Death Penalty
Early last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis began signing death warrants at a faster rate than ever before. What followed was the most intense period of executions the state has carried out in more than eight decades.
To Protect Its Drinking Water, This City Has to Appeal to the Oil Regulators That Put It at Risk
Oklahoma restricts oil field wastewater injection within a half-mile of public water wells. Regulators have let companies do it anyway. But in the city of Enid, officials are pushing back against one of the state’s biggest industries.
Trump’s DOJ Said Police Reform Was “Factually Unjustified.” A New Report Shows Otherwise.
Police forces with records of unconstitutional policing continued to engage in excessive force even as the Trump administration declared federal oversight unnecessary, according to a new yearlong review by the ACLU.
Should People Who Killed Their Abusers Walk Free?
From behind bars, April Wilkens successfully advocated for a new Oklahoma law offering a pathway to freedom if she and her domestic violence “survivor sisters” could prove abuse contributed to their crimes. But that wasn’t the end of the story.
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Skip topics listToxic Pressure
How Oklahoma Lets Oil Companies Contaminate Drinking Water
Wastewater from Oklahoma oil and gas operations is spreading uncontrollably belowground, blasting out of old wells and contaminating drinking water. Documents show regulators failed to stop pollution or hold companies accountable.
Toxic Wastewater From Oil Fields Keeps Pouring Out of the Ground. Oklahoma Regulators Failed to Stop It.
Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, is spewing from old wells. Experts warn of a pollution crisis spreading underground and threatening Oklahoma’s drinking water.
To Protect Its Drinking Water, This City Has to Appeal to the Oil Regulators That Put It at Risk
Oklahoma restricts oil field wastewater injection within a half-mile of public water wells. Regulators have let companies do it anyway. But in the city of Enid, officials are pushing back against one of the state’s biggest industries.
Forgive and Forget
How a Church Enabled Child Sex Abusers
Instead of reporting child sexual abuse allegations to police, the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church encouraged victims to forgive their abusers and forget the abuse.
In This Church, Child Sexual Abuse Has Gone Unchecked for So Long That It Spans Generations
The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church’s culture of forgiving and forgetting sins has absolved abusers and silenced victims across the U.S. and Canada, ensnaring parents, children and grandchildren in the same cycle of abuse.
Young Girls Were Sexually Abused by a Church Member. They Were Told to Forgive and Forget.
In Minnesota, leaders of an Old Apostolic Lutheran Church community enabled a child abuser by telling his victims that once the sins were “washed away in the blood of reconciliation,” they could never speak of them again.
What a Recorded Interview Between Police and Preachers Reveals About How a Minnesota Church Handled Sexual Abuse
5 Takeaways From Our Investigation Into How Leaders of a Minnesota Church Community Enabled a Child Abuser
Impact: Lawmaker Calls for Stronger Mandatory Reporting Rules Following Our Investigation Into Church Abuse Case
Waiting for Water
Tribes’ Fight for a Promised Resource
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1908 that tribes with reservations have a right to water. But ProPublica and High Country News found that in the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin they face unique obstacles: a state that aggressively opposes them, a process that sometimes doesn’t provide infrastructure to access water and growing competition from other users.
Native American Tribes Came Together to Secure Their Rights to Colorado River Water. Four States Are Stalling the Deal.
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming are resisting the deal because it would allow the Navajo and Hopi to lease water to cities downstream, likely the growing towns around Phoenix.
Western States Opposed Tribes’ Access to the Colorado River 70 Years Ago. History Is Repeating Itself.
Records unearthed by a University of Virginia professor shed new light on states’ vocal opposition in the 1950s to tribes claiming their share of the river.
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